Understanding the Saturn Return

I've blogged about the Saturn Return before, if only in my post about Gone With the Wind. Gone with the Wind was written zodiacally, which you can read about at that post. What made me realize it was the "coincidence" of Scarlett O'Hara's "karma" catching up to her at age 28--the same time as the Saturn Return. 

What is the Saturn Return?

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All the planets move cyclically. Saturn returns to the same position once every 29.5 years. That is the time frame of the Saturn Return: between the ages of 28-30, and again from 58-60, and even again from 88-90 if you live a really long time. There's a few-year window there because Saturn is such a slow-moving planet. Here is a calculator to calculate your own personal Saturn return.

Saturn is astrologically known as the "Lord of Karma." Basically the idea is that as it returns, all your karma comes back at you. You might get away with being a crappy person for most of the time, but once that Saturn Return hits, you can be sure you will reap what you have sown.

Or at least that's the idea. You don't have to believe in this stuff. I'm not really sure I do. I still have a few years to go before I experience my first Saturn Return. So, who knows. But it is interesting.

Here's what one set of Saturn bloggers has to say about it (emphasis mine):

If you’re in your mid-to-late twenties or even in your early thirties, you are close to the heart of your first Saturn Return, and are probably feeling the crack of Saturn’s whip more than ever. If everything feels like chaos, if your relationships are breaking down and you’re questioning your career, your friendships, your sanity, and your very life, it is likely that it’s just the ripples of your Saturn Return descending. [...]

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As you hit the Saturn Return, you’re about to leap off the cliff of childhood and you feel estranged from external support systems. Now you can’t be taken care of; You have to learn to fend for yourself and figure out what truly constitutes the ground below. What internal resources do you draw upon for a safe landing if you are to make this leap, kicked out of the nest once and for all? Once you finish your Return, you’ll probably have a much better idea.

The time of the Saturn Return is a time of concentrated, personalized growth. As another blogger writes:

Essentially, your Saturn return is a test. What is it testing? Maybe a better question is, what is is NOT testing?! Saturn is a hard taskmaster, & Saturn wants you to learn the difficult lessons so that you can move forward with your life. During your Saturn return, you will be asked repeatedly to prove that you have learned from the challenges you’ve faced over the last 29 years.

[....] 

During your Saturn return, it might feel like everything is thrown into turmoil, from your relationships to your career, even down to your family situation & where you live. 

I sometimes think of Saturn as a kind of loving bully — the cruel-to-be-kind type. He picks us up, turns us upside down & shakes everything out of our pockets. The stuff that stays is the stuff that is working. Everything else gets shaken loose.

That same article has a whole list of things to do to survive your Saturn return. Go check out her site for the list, but some of the things that stood out to me were:

- Don't compare yourself to others
- Take responsibility for your life
- Recognize the power of your own free agency
- Let go of grudges and bitterness

Saturn: Lord of Karma, or Giant Mirror?

I've thought about this a lot. I don't believe that someone's future is "written in their stars," or anything like you might hear on an astrology site or A Knight's Tale (<--great movie). To me, the stars feel more like a mirror. They mirror who we are.

So to me, it would make sense that if you'd cleared out a lot of your issues before hitting those crucial years, your Saturn return would not be a big deal. If you haven't cleared out your issues, the Saturn return would be a big deal.

Preparing for a Saturn Return

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I'm actually only 26, so I have a little while to go before my own Saturn return. But my husband is coming up on his first Saturn return, so the idea of it all has been on my mind.

It seems to me that, if any of this stuff is actually valid at all, the best way to prepare for a Saturn return happens to be the best way to prepare for anything. Scriptures, prayer, meditation, service, temple worship, magnification of callings. All those things cleanse the inner vessel. If my theory about the planets as a mirror is correct, repentance and a change of heart would take care of the issues associated with the Saturn return. You can't deal with a negative reflection if you've already cleared your personal negativity.

Conclusion

The Saturn return happens every 29.5 years, but the effects of it are felt for the years surrounding that crucial midpoint. The things that happen to us during the Saturn return reflect the lessons we need to prove we've learned. Saturn may be considered kind of a bully, but it's all to help us grow. Prepare for a Saturn return with spiritual preparedness and clearing out the negative aspects of the self.